Background: Matthew Bourne’s parents were June and Jim Bourne and he had a brother Dan. His mother was a secretary and his father worked for Thames Water for 30 years.
When 12 or 13 he and his friend Simon Carter waited to get the autographs of actors outside the Apollo, Lyric, Palace, or Queens theatres.
He attended a Methodist-run youth club which had a choir and he put on his versions of musicals.
He went to school at the Sir George Monoux mixed comprehensive (later a sixth-form college) in Walthamstow in north-east London. He left with two grade C A levels.
He didn't admit to himself that he was gay until he was 18. He then rang the telephone number for Gay Switchboard which was printed on the sleeve of Tom Robinson's single Glad To Be Gay and he was directed to a gay youthclub in Holloway.

Career: He first took a job in the contracts department at the BBC then with the Keith Prowse ticket agency. This was followed by a job in the Royal National Theatre bookshop. Bourne also worked as an usher and became aware that among the other theatre devotees were dance and drama students.
In 1982 he was given a place at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. Being 22 he was older than usual, and he also had no previous dance lessons. However, he had a great breadth and depth of knowledge of theatre, dance, and old musicals. He obtained a BA in dance and theatre in 1986.
In 1987, with the help of friends from the Laban, he set up his own dance company Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP). The company reworked classical pieces including The Nutcracker and La Sylphides. In 1995 the company produced Swan Lake with all the swans being played by men, and in 1997 it became the longest-running ballet in the West End since Diaghilev's Sleeping Princess in 1926. In 1999 it went to Broadway where Bourne received a Tony Award for best choreographer and best director of the musical.
In 1997 Matthew Bourne became an honorary fellow of the Laban Centre.
Also in 1997 he was asked by Cameron Mackintosh to create the dances for the revival of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver!. The fees from this allowed him to buy a house in Islington and set up home with Arthur Pita.
In 2000 AMP produced The Car Man, with a reworking of Bizet's music for Carmen.

Friends & Relationships: He had a seven-year relationship with David Manners who designed for AMP. In 1995 he started a relationship with Arthur Pita, a principle dancer with AMP.
Greatest Achievements: Bogarde was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des lettres in 1982.
He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters at St Andrews University.
He was knighted on 13th. February, 1992.

Best role: Prof. Aschenbach in Death in Venice.

Legacy: At the moment his all-male version of Swan Lake

Work: Overlap Lovers, 1987. Town and Country, 1991. Deadly Serious, 1992. Nutcracker, 1992. Highland Fling, 1994. Swan Lake, 1995. Cinderella, 1997. The Car Man, 2000.

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